The Hill Report

This week, House Democrats continued their quest to raise your taxes. I wish that I could report to you that the fiscal year 2008 Budget had improved since its original House passage. Unfortunately, the Budget’s massive and irresponsible tax increase is still on track to be the largest in American history, weighing in at a shocking $392.5 billion over the next 5 years.

What does this mean for you? In the 32nd Congressional District of Texas, the Heritage Foundation estimates that passage of this budget will cost every taxpayer an additional $2,920 in 2012. It will also mean a per capita loss of $474 in personal income – as well as 2,389 lost jobs and a loss of $328 million to the local economy.

In real terms, for every American taxpayer, this means the following:

• reducing the child tax credit for working families so that the government can collect $27 billion more to finance new spending.
• reinstating the marriage penalty and the death tax to collect an additional $104 billion in taxes.
• completely ignoring the Alternative Minimum Tax crisis, which is projected to hit 23 million middle-class families if not addressed responsibly.

In addition to allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax relief to expire, this Budget balances additional spending on the backs of everyday American taxpayers. With 12 “reserve funds,” or pet initiative IOUs, this Budget sets the stage for more than $115 billion additional future spending —which will be financed by even higher future taxes.

For the last 4 years, my Republican colleagues and I passed responsible Budgets that kept discretionary spending at or below inflation for all non-defense, non-Homeland security spending. In contrast, the Democrats’ Budget brings this fiscally disciplined tradition to a screeching halt by allowing about $25 billion more in discretionary spending than requested by President Bush or even the spendthrift Senate, which asks for about $7 billion less than the House.

Without the meaningful tax relief passed in 2001 and 2003, our economy would not have seen the massive job growth – with 7.6 million new jobs created for American workers – and tremendous economic growth of 3.5% per year that our economy has experienced over the last 15 quarters.

I will continue to stand up for fiscal discipline, economic growth and responsible budgeting and oppose the Democrats’ tax-and-spend policies that would implement the largest tax increase in history.


Military Funding Update
As you know, last week President Bush vetoed a pork-filled emergency military spending bill that included arbitrary timelines, micro-managing military operation in Iraq. This week, Congress had the opportunity to produce a clean military spending bill that supports our troops.

Unfortunately, House Democrats once again chose to play politics by voting to ration troop funding for only 60 days at a time. Most Americans will agree—we should not put funding for the troops on an installment plan or their bullets and body armor on layaway.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has clearly stated that the Pentagon cannot start and stop on a dime and that rationing military funds threatens to shut down parts of the Defense Department. By passing yet another bill that is destined for the President’s veto pen, House Democrats continue to undermine our military as the troops wait for critical funding to complete their mission.

Once again, I call upon my colleagues to put the needs of our troops ahead of political ambitions by passing a complete emergency military funding bill – not a rationed funding plan.

Homeland Security Legislation
This week, the House also passed legislation to reauthorize funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress has a responsibility ensure that DHS has the necessary resources to protect our nation, and I support the authorizing legislation that the Homeland Security Committee produced.

Unfortunately, before this critical legislation reached the House floor, the Majority Party chose to eliminate funding for the following important security protections:

• Maritime alien smuggling enforcement
• Improving Security of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program
• Authorizing biometric identification of illegal aliens
• Ensuring interoperability grants can be used for training and exercises
• Requiring immigration checks for employees at high-risk critical infrastructure
• Authorization of the Secret Service and its functions
• Report on Secret Service training facility and information sharing

I am deeply concerned that my Democrat colleagues did not consider these security programs —including first responder interoperability — important enough to fund. As you may remember, the 9/11 aftermath was compounded when first responders of various agencies were unable to communicate with each other during search and rescue due to incompatible communication lines. Consequently, the 9/11 Commission clearly stated that first responder interoperability should be among Congress’ top priorities.

I will continue working with my colleagues to support the 9/11 Commission’s interoperability recommendations and ensure that Dallas has the communication resources necessary to secure our community.

Intelligence Legislation
In a post-9/11 world, our nation’s intelligence capabilities must be advanced, timely, and accurate to stay ahead of our enemies. Congress has the responsibility to ensure that our intelligence community has the resources necessary to remain the best in the world.

On Thursday, the House passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2008. While much of the bill’s provisions remain classified, we do know that this legislation represents a significant setback to post-9/11 intelligence progress.

According to Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), this flawed intelligence bill includes “deep cuts to classified CIA programs designed to help America fight and succeed in the conflict against radical jihadists.”

Even more appalling, the bill undermines intelligence work on the War on Terror in order to fund a National Intelligence Estimate on climate change. While climate change is a serious issue, programs that redirect scarce intelligence resource to study open-source issues have no place in a classified intelligence bill.

This attempt to categorize environmental theories as a matter of national security intelligence is a dangerous return to a pre-9/11 world in which the CIA diverted critical spy satellite resources to survey the polar ice caps and sea turtle nests on beaches – projects known as “bugs and bunnies” and supported by then-Vice President Al Gore.

This environmental “intelligence” policy is yet another example of the House Democrats’ misplaced priorities, politicizing our intelligence community instead of addressing critical needs to secure our nation. Please be assured that the security of our nation will remain my top priority as a Member of Congress, and I will continue to fight against any legislation that fails to adequately fund security and intelligence operations.